The President wants to talk to the students of America. Evidently, his intention is to encourage students to take their school year more seriously and take greater personal responsibility for their education.

Not so fast.

We are going to need to see an ID.

Somebody needs to stop by the office, sign in, and get a visitor’s badge before he will be allowed to speak to kids.

Mr. President, you just can’t just show up and demand an audience with our students.

Who do you think you are?

This idea of the President of the United States addressing school children has sparked a great deal of discussion.

Educators have been debating this speech for the last couple of weeks. It has been a topic of discussion on Twitter, Plurk, listserv’s and blogs.

In my mind, schools have reacted rather predictably.

The speech is a new idea.

So it must be a bad idea.

Far too many adults seem to be forming their opinions based upon their political beliefs.

Personally, I think this idea needs to pass the “Say It Out Loud Test”.

This method is tried and true.

If you want to see if something is a good idea or a bad idea… simply say it out loud.

So here I go. “President Obama wants to speak directly to school children so he can encourage them to work hard and take school seriously.”

Sounds good to me. Plus, I am willing to give him the benefit of that doubt because he is… The President of the United States of America.

All too often teachers and administrators complain about schools not getting well-deserved respect.

Now the President wants to help by encouraging students to do better… they must do better.

I say we give him a chance.

Just this once, let’s not be overly paranoid about a stranger speaking to our students.

Let’s give a new idea a chance before we sit around and come up with a long list of reasons why it won’t work.

This is a great opportunity to not only teach students the importance of listening, but also the importance of respecting the highest office in the land.

So, echoing Michael Smith, I don’t think enough can be said about the importance of respecting the highest office in the land. Thank God we live in a country where we get to believe and vote as we will every four years.

If we want our children to respect adults (something many of us feel is an area of “Needs Improvement”), starting with the President seems like a really good place to me. ANY president Shouldn’t Need a Visitor’s Pass to Speak to Students.